Nudge from Dad leads to law career

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Scott Halloin’s parents, both real estate developers, taught him an important lesson: Always start with the architect and engineer.

Now a shareholder attorney at Halloin & Murdock SC in Milwaukee, he applies that to many of his construction law cases.

The firm does a lot of multiparty construction law cases. For instance, it has represented claim holders in stadium cases such as Lambeau Field and the Philadelphia Phillies’ baseball stadium. Many of these claims originate when projects run over budget.

The firm’s lawyers also have handled some of the largest litigation cases involving mold that can produce toxins for noncommercial sites, he said.

“We backed into it because we do a lot of engineering related claims,” Halloin said. “We’re good water lead evaluators.”

Halloin’s father also inspired him to go to law school — sort of.

“I was shamed by my father to go into law school,” said Halloin, who at the time planned to attend Northwestern University’s writing school to continue his screen-writing career. “He said, ‘You’ll end up living on a park bench.”

So, despite having already written four plays and scripts, Halloin and his brother Jeff went to law school.

His focus on construction law started during a law school internship with Steven Stein, a Chicago lawyer who wrote a treatise on construction law.

In 1992, Scott and Jeff Halloin returned to Wisconsin and set up a construction company called Landstar Builders Inc. in Eau Claire. Scott Halloin continued his focus on construction law at Foley & Lardner LLP until starting Halloin & Murdock five years ago.

Halloin now uses his writing skills for technical writing. He wrote the Wisconsin section for the second edition of Stein’s construction law treatise.

“Technical writing is pretty dry,” he said. “We write so the jury and judge with no technical background can understand it.”

Outside of the office, Halloin said he enjoys downhill skiing, biking and spending time with his 9-year-old daughter, Chelsea.